“It brought no luck when the girl had it,” cried the one-eyed Jai Dé. “It may have had something to do with the death of Premi’s husband. Let the black charm be taken away!”
“Daughter of an owl, you know nothing!” screamed out Darobti; and an abuse-match began between the two women, carried on in voices so shrill and loud that Alicia would fain have stopped her ears. A Hindu bibi in a passion could probably, in noisy volubility, hold her own amongst women of any other nationality in the world.
[7]. To show how strong this fear of witchcraft is amongst Hindu women, I will give another extract, almost as curious as the first, from the public address of the Christian gentleman and converted Brahmin, T. K. Chatterji. Speaking of his mother he says,—
“She was very much afraid of the witches, and to protect me from their evil influences she used to fast often, and make vows to gods and goddesses. If any devotee happened to visit our village, one of the first things that she would ask him was, whether he knew anything that would keep me from the evil influence of the witches. She would pay him money with which to make puja [worship], and would not mind undergoing any amount of penances for my good. She was not content doing this only, but procured a costly gold chain, and enclosed in its links little pieces of the roots of some wild trees which she thought had the virtue of driving away witches and evil spirits, and she took great care to hang this chain round my neck. She used to spit on my forehead whenever I went out to play with other boys or to the village school, and would not eat anything until I returned home safe.”
Oh, what a picture is here presented to us of maternal love, strong though blind, and of slavish, misery-making fear! Such superstition, met with in various forms, is one of the galling chains from which, in God’s strength, missionaries desire to free their poor native sisters.
Chand Kor being of a less irascible nature, and perhaps less superstitious than the others, was more inclined to drive a good bargain with the ignorant Mem Sahiba, who had taken an evident fancy to a black ornament, old, damaged, and of little intrinsic value. Alicia, confused and half-frightened, yet resolved, cost what it might, to keep the locket. Chand Kor perceived this, and saw her advantage. The lady, willing to exchange one jewel for another, was driven to bid higher and higher, till even the contentious women stopped their quarrelling to see how far the English lady would go.
Alicia's brooch had been rejected; she was ready to add the ear-rings to match, then the silver buckle which fastened her band; but her offers were of no avail. Darobti and Jai Dé kept repeating the word jadugari (witchcraft). Alicia knew not the meaning of the word, but she saw that the bibis connected it with the locket, and thought it probably the name by which lockets are called.
“Give me the little jadugari,” said she, “and take this,” and she held out her silver chain.
“It is jadugari; she confesses it, the witch!” cried Darobti, shrinking back as if the chain were a snake that could bite her.
But the covetous eyes of Chand Kor, the ruler of the zenana, were fixed on a golden bracelet in the form of a serpent with diamond eyes, which was the most expensive trinket which Alicia possessed, and a bridal gift sent from England.